Audio books have already become a popular phenomenon, but only recently the first M/M publisher has begun to publish M/M audio books. This seems to be the right time to ask what you as the reader think about them.
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If I can weigh in on this post for a moment. My daughter is 23 and has a 3rd grade reading avg. Although, she reads every day (to keep in practice), she cannot read lengthy novels or long chapters. To attempt is a very frustrating venture. So, she lives for audio books… and mom to read the m/m stories.
If publishers would carry audio books, there would be customers for them.
I’ve tried audio books, but I’ve accepted that my brain is just not wired for them. I listen, but nothing sinks in. I simply need the words on the page.
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However, I absolutely hope more publishers will jump on the audio train. I know so many people who are dying for more, and for a better range of offerings.
Year’s ago I used to listen to some audio books, mostly mysteries and they were okay. It really depended on the reader and if they appealed or not. I tried a couple of paranormal romance and hated it. Not sure it was the book or the narrator. I also find hearing a sex scene spoken kind of funny and not sexy. I prefer to read my sex (or see it with sound AND pictures ;-).
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I use Adobe Reader which has a voice function and if you want to hear something REALLY funny have a robot read a sex scene. LOL But there is no way someone could stand that voice for a whole book unless you had no other alternative.
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I prefer e-books, no sounds, just words on a screen or on paper.
I don’t care for audio books. They tend to put me to sleep. My husband, on the other hand, listens to them all the time. I can’t remember the last time I saw him reading a paper book and he has no interest in my Kindle.
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That said, I think it’s great if more publishers offer audio books. It’s great for readers to have choices. Paper books for the “smell & feel” crowd, ebooks for me, and audio books for my husband.
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L
I was going to vote in the poll but realized that my answers for audio books are different from my answers for erotic audio books.
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I enjoy audio books for most genres but for erotica, I wouldn’t listen to them at all. I find adding a voice to the *cough* prose takes away from the experience. Not to mention the voice may not be the one I want to associate with the book and so on.
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I remember hearing some erotic pod casts and I couldn’t get through a full minute of the throbbing, pulsing. I never considered myself a prude but the voice turned me off and combined with the spoken prose – oh god no please.
I like them when I am driving for long stretches. Lovecraft and L’Amour, Sharyn McCrumb and J.K Rowling were constant companions when I was running Mishawaka to Shreveport. They even kept me company on the longer stretches when I was running Arkansas. Just sitting and listening? Can’t do it.
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I’d love to see more books offered as e-books. Get a good narrator (male, I think) and give it a try. There are sales for the enterprising publisher.
Audio books are more like radio plays for me, like having the wireless on in the background when you’re doing something else. I can’t say that I listen to them that often though. It doesn’t stick in my mind the way that a text does when I’m reading a book. But I do love listening to someone who can read well and I have a thing about voices, but I’m rather particular. Some can be a pleasure to listen to, while others make my ears bleed.
I definitely don’t want to listen/read romance or erotica in audio book form. I just know it wouldn’t work for me. Still, I’ve listened to some Yaoi audios and found them hilarious, but I think it’s partly because I don’t understand a word, and that’s probably exactly as I’d prefer it 😀
I think Christian got his german/english mixed up. Shouldn’t it be, do you ‘listen’ to audio books, not ‘read’?
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Personally, my mind wonders too much for an audio book. I’ve tried a couple of times, mostly audio books that I’ve found free online. I’ll be listening along and then I’ll start playing freecell and I’m concentrating on the game and I have no clue what is going on with the book.
Christian, forgot to say this earlier but this is a good topic.
The site doesn’t seem to be able to load my voting choices so I’ll just say it here: it’s “I don’t care” for all of them :). Audio books are out with me, because they need way too much concentration. I can understand written English just fine, and I can read at my own pace and stop if I get too tired to follow or need to check in a dictionary. But spoken English is harder is understand. I can deal with movies because there are images to support the words (although I always turn the subtitles on if possible), but audiobooks is way too abstract. The only ones I ever listened too were old Janet Evanovich mysteries and the vocabulary was easy and I had read the books before 😀 It was mostly curiosity and at the end, I used to put them on when I went to bed because it’s easy to lose the thread and let the words blur together and lull you to sleep.
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However, I never use audiobooks in French either and it wouldn’t come to my mind to. 8 hours to go through a normal novel seems like a waste of time when I can read the normal book in a fourth of that time. Audio also forces a voice on the characters that I prefer to imagine for myself. Also, in the case of erotic books, I have a nagging suspicion that what I find sexy when reading on the page would sound silly and embarassing when heard out loud.
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I do think it would probably be good if more publishers offered audiobooks, though. I know a lot of people don’t have my hangups or my restrictions and love to listen to audiobooks when they’re stuck in traffic in their car or while they’re cleaning the house and such :).
I’ve listened to quite a few free ones from Podiobooks, where they come as podcasts a chapter or a couple of chapters at a time. Some writers upload the whole thing at once, some a week apart, so if you’re listening when it first comes out it’s a combination of frustrating and delicious anticipation.
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They’re an odd thing. Sometimes the blurb and the reviews of the book really appeal to me and listening to the first chapter it sounds well written, but if the voice isn’t right, I won’t be able to listen. That’s never going to happen with a print book.
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An odd effect is if you listen to a load of chapters in a very short time then for a few days everything you read is in the voice of that narrator. That can be quite strange to say the least.
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I agree with Kassa that an erotic book narrated aloud could be a different kettle of fish than a non erotic one. Even with the not very explicit love scenes in the audiobooks I’ve listened to I can start to squirm a bit in a way I wouldn’t if I was reading it as text. Maybe because as text I’m hearing two different voices in my head for the two people gettin’ it on. If one person is narrating that, there’s only one voice and it all starts getting a bit, well, mastabatory! 😀
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You do sometimes get ones where they have a couple of performers to do the voices, especially for male and female voices. But personally I don’t like that much either. It makes it neither fish nor fowl that way, sort of partway between audio book and audio drama and doesn’t quite work as either.
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I find that stories that have been written specifically with audio/podcasting in mind will usually be better than one that wasn’t. Audio and text are different delivery mediums with their own strengths and drawbacks. And one thing the writer has to be really good at is dialogue! If it’s bad then it will make me stop listening faster than it would have made me stop reading in a book.
I have tried a few because I like the concept. And there was 1 I really liked. Pride & Prejudice read by a British theatre actress. That was almost like watching the ’95 tv series. But otherwise. I can read much faster as those people on cd.
I do sometimes listen to audio books and some have been really good, but as Kady said, I am particular about the voice of the reader. That usually makes it or ruins it for me. On more than one occasion I have stopped listening because the reader was so bad that my ears hurt!
Also I have to be in situation where I am doing something else i.e. driving or walking – they’re great for commuting to work. I can’t just listen to an audio book sitting on the sofa. It would put me to sleep.
The only times I listened to audio books is when the book is read by the author himself or by an actor I know and like.
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I’m with the others who say that erotica in audio book is not really for me. You would have to have an incredible voice to change my mind for that.
I wanted to try and I did… and experiment lasted for about 10 minutes. I just can’t concentrate enough to follow. I can listen to poetry, I suppose, but when it comes to the novels I really need to sink into the written word to enjoy the book. That said, I know that there are many people who enjoy audio books and they should exist. Like someone said, it’s good to have a choice.
I can’t imagine existing e-book publishers considering adding a format like this. It’s one thing to edit and release books each and every week in various e-formats and (sometimes) paperback (already dozens of hours of work on top of editing and cover art and website upkeep) but to hire voice actors, find a recording studio and schedule recording dates, etc. etc. etc. and dish out even more money on a format that has a relatively limited appeal would be the death knell of the publishers who attempt it, especially since many e-pubs are barely breaking even. I certainly couldn’t imagine any publisher offering audio for every single book they release, and then it would be a crap shoot when releasing a few audio books to see if they would even earn back the overhead costs.
I listen to non-fiction books on my iPod all the time, especially at the gym. I’d be interested in trying a m/m title in audio (if the narrator’s voice is pleasant).
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Which publishers are releasing audio m/m books?
I’m very visual. I need to see the words to get into the story and follow along. With audio books I too often find that my mind has totally wandered off-track and I am continually restarting the book or chapter.
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The evolution and use of audiobooks in Germany closely parallels that of the US. A special example of its use is the West German Audio Book Library for the Blind, founded in 1955. Actors from the municipal theater in Münster recorded the first audio books for the visually impaired in an improvised studio lined with egg cartons. .–;
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